The athletes
featured in PlayStation 2 games based on college sports are looking more
realistic than ever. Take, for instance, UCLA Bruins tailback DeShaun Foster.
In Electronic Arts' NCAA Football 2002, just about every
aspect of him -
his jersey number, physique, style, and talent - is reflected in his
digital doppelgänger.

Well, almost. Despite all the realism in this fall's releases, there's
something missing: actual faces. Rather than using 3-D images of players'
mugs, as is common when digitizing the pros for PS2 games, NCAA-based titles
employ generic facial features.

College athletics buffs won't find this too surprising - the NCAA has long
banned the use of player names and images for commercial gain. But never
before has the rule had such bizarre effects.

Older videogame consoles render graphics too slowly to generate lifelike
faces. Even the pros were pathetically nondescript. But PS2's 128-bit
processing
changes everything - except the NCAA's rules. Pat Battle, president of
Collegiate Licensing, which handles permissions for the NCAA, says it would
be nice for gamers if real faces were used.
"I can't recall anything remotely similar to the videogame industry," he
says, adding that though there have been informal talks about the possibility
of making an exception, they haven't gone far.

Allan Frankel, a product manager at 989 Sports who worked onNCAA
GameBreaker 2002, says adding players' faces would increase sales.
"In this industry, realism is what it's all about."